What We Do For Family
by yastaghr
Summary: What if Geno turned into Error after being with Reaper and having Goth?
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't the greatest of photographs. Life's large hands weren't really suited to the small camera. She'd insisted on taking it, though. Reaper was glad she did. This photo was one of his most treasured possessions. He looked at it nearly every day. Lately that had gone up to nearly every hour.

He'd had a major panic attack when he realised it was starting to wear thin. Luckily Mercy had told him about this thing called a laminator. He'd dressed up from head to toe in thick clothing and gone visibly into a store that had one. The young human that helped him had thought it odd that he didn't at least take his gloves off, but Reaper had bullshitted his way through that without admitting that he _knew_ that Life would find a way to kill him if he took one of her creations to his realm too soon. Thus, the clothing. Whatever the hell he'd said seemed to convince the human. He laminated the picture without a fuss. It hardly cost him anything at all.

Reaper flipped the picture over and stared at the back. It had a painfully familiar scrawl on the back. Reaper still had no idea what it said. Every time he'd asked he'd been laughed off. It was both adorable and infuriating, and the infuriating quality of it only made it more attractive. Now, though, he wished for less frustration and more answers. He was pretty sure he could make out a "me" a few times...or was that a "my"? It might be a "my". Damn. He needed to look away before his eyes started watering. He flipped the picture back over and studied it. He must know every pixel of it by now, but it still held comfort for him, so he still looked.

It was taken on a sunny day on the Surface. Green grass with scattered flowers filled the bottom of the frame. Then came Grim, Reaper's brother, sitting cross-legged in front of everyone else, and Fresh, lounging like he didn't have a care in the world. To his far right was Red, Underfell Sans, who had a wicked grin on his face. Next to him was Edge. He was scowling, but Reaper knew that was only because Red had just told a ridiculously bad joke. On the left side was Reaper himself, smiling into the camera with a beaming little Goth on his hip. In the middle was the hardest figure for Reaper to see, giggling into his scarf without a care in the world.

Geno looked so, so happy in this picture. Reaper could only hope that Geno was happy wherever he was now. Maybe he was even looking for a way to come home. Reaper couldn't wait to see him again. He felt...lost without him.

"Oof!" A small little voice said as someone short ran into his legs.

Reaper looked down and smiled. At least he wasn't alone while he waited. He still had their son Goth to take care of, and his brother to keep him sane. That didn't stop him from searching, however.

"Dad! Lookit what I drew!"

Reaper grinned. "is it another picture of uncle fresh?" Reaper guessed. You couldn't call it a long shot. Goth was determined to draw the terror of all artists right.

Goth pouted at him and hid his painting. "No. It's...uh…"

Reaper carefully took the painting and smoothed it out. All the while he said, "sweetie pie, there's nothing wrong with that. ink says that the best way to get better at drawing something is to draw it again and again. i wasn't making fun of you. i was just guessing."

Goth brightened up. "Oh. Okay! What do you think of this one?"

Reaper studied it seriously. "you forgot the left half of his hood on his hoodie. you can probably add it in now."

Goth took his painting back thoughtfully. "I think I will do a new one. I don't want eraser marks on it. It has to be perfect. If it isn't perfect, Uncle Fresh might not like it, and if Uncle Fresh doesn't like it then he might not go search for Mom!"

Reaper winced. So that was what this was about. How do you tell your child that they don't need to bribe someone to get them to help with something like this?

"he's already searching for mom, sweetie pie. everyone is, and if they aren't already they will soon. daddie finally got time off work to go searching, too. i promise, we're doing everything we can to find him."

Goth sniffled and wiped off his tears with his sleeve, leaving wet stains on the white robe. "But...But...I want to help! Palette makes art of people and they like it, so I thought if I made art he'd like it and help us! I...I…"

Reaper smiled. "how about this, gothy? you can make some art for everyone who is helping us as thank you gifts! you can even use the big kid markers. okay?"

"Okay," Goth said dubiously, "but you're going to help!"

"Of course I will, Goth. Of course."

* * *

In a stark white landscape devoid of anything and everything, including walls, a floor, and time, a skeleton huddled and tried to hold back his sobs. He was hard to make out. Apart from his shorts and his scarf, everything he wore was white; White slippers, white socks, white t-shirt, white hoodie. The only marr on this white image was the black shorts, the red scarf, and the red bloody slash across the white of his shirt.

Geno was curled up in a way that couldn't be comfortable. He was half on his side with his legs folded beneath him. One hand was holding a thinning piece of photo paper. On it was a familiar image: six smiling figures and one scowling one arranged on the green grass in a summer day.

"Why? Why did I have to be so stupid?" He asked the muffling silence. "We were fine the way we were. Great, even. So why did I have to go messing around with that damned machine?"

Nothing answered him that he could hear, not even the echoes of his own voice. It was like this place swallowed everything. His voice. The colours. His hopes. Him. It was terrifying. How could he ever hope to get out of a place that doesn't even have the courtesy to provide a ceiling, walls, and floor? How could he ever hope to see his family again?

A single blue tear marred the stark white below him. It was joined by another. And another. And another. A trickle of tears turned into a torrent as the dam burst and Geno cried in earnest. Wracking sobs shook him. The picture was pressed against his chest protectively as blue streaks of tears fell down his face.

Long after the tears had dried up and the sobbing had turned into fitful sleep, those same blue streaks stayed permanently dyed into the white of Geno's bones.


	2. Chapter 2

Reaper swung his scythe and cut through the fabric of the universe, opening a portal to another AU. He had to duck to fit through because he was unusually taller than normal.

"Daddy! I do!" Goth shouted angrily from his position on Reaper's back. He was gripping Reaper's ribs with his legs tight enough to hurt, but Reaper didn't care. It just felt good to be touching him.

Reaper so rarely was able to touch another monster. He could touch the other gods, but most of them weren't speaking to him. They were furious after what he had done to Life. Nevermind that she had been dead and bringing her to the Land of the Dead was the only way to bring her back. They were sure it had been his hand that had killed her. It hadn't, and as soon as Reaper found that damned Chaos then he could prove it. In the meantime he was almost alone except for his brother and Goth. He thanked Life every day for helping Geno and him bring their little light into the world. Why wouldn't he? Goth was wonderful.

"i know you can, but remember how big your portals are? you and i together wouldn't fit through. how about you open up a portal and come home by yourself? does that sound good?" Reaper tried to reason with him.

"Hmph!" Goth said, pouting. Reaper could just hear it in his voice. Oh well. He'd settle Goth down for a nap once they got back.

"HO! STRANGERS! HALT YOUR PROGRESS OR FACE THE WROTH OF THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS!" A familiar voice called out. Reaper looked up and smiled. Standing about 20 feet away was the tall and sharply-dressed figure of Edge, the Papyrus of Underfell and one of Geno's adopted brothers.

Geno called back, half giggling, in his traditional response. "The God of Death stops for no monster! Bow before him or die!"

Reaper frowned when Edge didn't respond as he usually did. He usually shouted, with a twinkle in his eye, "THE GOD OF DEATH IS, OF COURSE, HONORED HERE!" and then bowed. Instead he screeched, "I RECOGNISE NO GOD OF DEATH, FOR I REFUSE TO DIE! FIGHT ME OR PERISH!"

Goth's little hands clutched at Reaper's hood. Reaper, completely silently, reached up and lifted Goth down to the ground. He knelt and said, "hey, goth. uncle edge and i need to have a private chat. can you show off how good you are at portals and head home? i'll come and get you."

Goth nodded and scurried off behind a tree- or, at least, he tried to. He squeaked as blue magic pinned him down to the ground. Reaper spun and glared at Edge, absolutely furious. "don't you know better than to harm a child? let him go or face me for real, papyrus. and rest assured that i do not play around with those who threaten my family."

Edge flushed and dropped his hand, hiding it behind his back. A gasp of air from Goth told Reaper that he had been released. He waited until he heard the sound of Goth's portal closing behind him before he sighed.

"I RELEASED HIM AS YOU ASKED ME, STRANGER. NOW TELL ME WHY YOU DARE COME INTO MY TERRITORY!"

Reaper sighed. "you have no memory of me, do you? do you remember your brother, geno?"

Edge growled at him. "I HAVE ONLY ONE BROTHER, AND HIS NAME IS RED. GET OUT OF MY TERRITORY BEFORE I KILL YOU FOR WHATEVER PALTRY EXP YOU BRING ME."

Reaper bowed to him, backing up slowly and never taking his eyes off Edge. "i'll just take my leave, then. try not to need me to come here too soon, brother-in-law. you may not know me, but i certainly know you, and i will not hesitate to reap you when your time comes. tell your brother i said hi~"

He hastily backed through a portal into their home before Edge's angry squak could become an attack. He couldn't help the wicked smile that played across his face. He loved making Edge squak, and if their world really did Reset, as he now suspected, then it would be a long time before he could do it again. Their world was supposed to be locked. It did not speak well to Geno's health that his lock had failed. Reaper quickly put that thought out of his head. Geno was fine. Fine! He was just… missing.

The thought of how long it had been was knocked from him as little Goth barreled into his legs. Reaper knelt down and smiled at his son. It quickly faded in the face of Goth's expression. "hey, gothy. why the long face?"

Big, soggy tears dripped down Goth's face. He tried to wipe them away, but they just kept coming. "Why did Uncle Edge not say the right thing? Why did he make me blue? We weren't training. He only does that in training. Did I do something wrong to make him mad? Do I need to apologize?"

Reaper shook his head sadly. "no, goth, this isn't your fault. something happened in their world that made him forget about us. you've heard mommy and i talking about the resets, right?"

Goth nodded and sniffed. "Yeah, but I don't know what they are. It didn't make any sense."

Reaper pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to his son. It was huge in Goth's small hands and soaked up the tears really well. "it doesn't make a lot of sense when you know what it is, either. they're a very not-good thing. you know uncle fresh's video games?" Reaper asked.

Goth nodded. Reaper felt relieved. Resets were so much harder to explain without that analogy available to you.

"well, have you ever reset one of those games?" His son only looked confused. Reaper sighed. There went the easiest explanation. "okay. so, imagine you're playing one of those games. you're having a good time with the easy parts, but then it gets harder. you remember how much fun those easy parts were, right? but you can't just walk back to those areas and have it be the same, can you?" Goth nodded slowly. "so, you could go on to play new parts and hope they'll be easier and more fun, or you could reset the game. a reset is like… making the game forget that you've already played it. you can go back to the very beginning and play the game like it's brand new. does that make sense?"

Goth's brow furrowed. "But what does that have to do with Uncle Edge? He's not in a video game."

Reaper chuckled darkly. "he… kind of is, goth. all the different universes we visit with our portals are like their own video games, and almost all of them can be reset by certain people. it happens more in some worlds than others. it's been a really long time since uncle edge's and uncle red's world reset, but that's what happened. uncle edge doesn't remember anything when there's a reset, because he meets us during the game. once he meets us again we can go visit him, okay goth? just… not yet."

"What about Uncle Red?" Goth asked quickly, "Will he remember us?"

Reaper smiled at his son,hoping this little bit of news would cheer him up. "he will. it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't show up in a bit to hang out with you, once uncle edge tells him about us. you can ask him to play a game with you, okay goth?"

Goth didn't look super excited about that idea. "But what about training with Uncle Edge? He promised me he was going to teach me how to turn someone blue next session!"

"and he will!" Reaper promised his son, "it's just going to be a while before that next session. okay? in the meantime, do you think you can draw uncle edge a bunch of pictures? imagine you're telling him the story of how you met! that way you can catch him up on you and your life!"

This idea got Goth more excited. He loved to draw people pictures at the moment. Reaper thought it might be because of his friend, Palette. Goth really wanted to impress him for some reason. It was cute! Sometimes Reaper wondered about what Goth felt about Palette, but Goth seemed to want to keep that a secret. Reaper could respect that. It was a harmless secret for the little one to keep from him, so he would let Goth keep it.

Reaper watched his son pull out the crayons and the construction paper and sighed. He needed a little time to himself. Hopefully Red wouldn't turn up while he was gone.

Only once he had retreated to their bedroom and closed the door did Reaper let himself cry. Big, soggy blue tears bubbled up from his eye sockets and slid down his face. He tried to stay quiet; he didn't want to worry Goth. It was damn near impossible, though. He was devastated. How could Geno's lock fail? He'd helped him set it. Underfell #13 should never have Reset ever again. Geno had promised Red it wouldn't. What did it mean that his promise had been broken? Was he…

No. He wouldn't think like that. He _couldn't_ think like that. He just had to keep searching. Without Goth. He couldn't survive seeing his little Gothy hurt like this again. He just couldn't.

* * *

Footsteps echoed in the booming silence that was the Anti-Void. If he was going to be trapped here, it might as well have a name; at least, that's what Geno thought. He was pacing back and forth in the endless expanse of white, full of nervous energy and tears.

Then the barest whisper of a voice from behind him had Geno spinning around. Wild hope fluttered in his chest like a newborn butterfly. Then confusion replaced it. There was nothing there. There was no one there. But he could have sworn that there had been a voice. It had sounded so…

Hey. Hey! Hey, you!

Geno spun again, certain that someone else must have fallen victim to the Anti-Void. There was nothing.

Wait, he can hear us?

Geno slapped himself none-too-gently to try and wake himself up out of his hallucination. It had to be that, right?

Geno, hi! You can hear us now, right? Say something to prove it, please?

He hugged himself tightly. He was finally going crazy! Great! Now he was going to have to go on medicine and do therapy all over again. Absolutely wonderful. Not.

Reaper and Goth are crying, Geno.

He froze. His soulmate and their son were crying? No! They needed to be happy! They shouldn't cry. Not now, not when he couldn't be there to comfort them. That was awful!

Geno pulled out his picture and traced the images of little Gothy and Reaper with his other hand. The tears were spilling out now once again. He had no idea how he was still making them. He hadn't had anything to eat or drink in days.

"i promise i'll come back to you, goth, reaper. no matter what happens i'll see you again."


	3. Chapter 3

Reaper left Goth under the watchful eye of Life. He left him reluctantly. Who wouldn't be afraid of losing someone they love when they had just lost another? Goth was such a little sweetheart! Reaper didn't think he could bear to lose him, too.

When Reaper swung his scythe he was greeted with the sight of empty blackness. He stepped through with the confidence of someone who had come there many times. This darkness was familiar. He had been visiting it for years, and there had once been a time when he spent every free hour he had hanging out in this darkness. Those days were long behind him, but… if there were anywhere where Geno might have ended up, the Save Screen would be it.

It was lucky for Reaper that he had come in invisibly, for, while there was no Geno in sight, there was someone else. Curled up in the fetal position was a skeleton. They were tall, with a detached jaw and mismatched eye sockets. Their body was covered in a black stocking. On top of that was a pair of blue short shorts and a very curvy white and yellow top. There was also a red-orange scarf. But the most striking thing about this monster was the jacket. They were wearing a blue jacket that was several sizes too small. It also had two cuts on either side of it that were lined with blood.

Reaper sighed. So, the universe had decided to torture a Papyrus in the same way that it had tortured Geno? Somehow, that didn't surprise him. He wondered what this one would end up being called.

Whatever that was, he didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be left alone in the darkness, endlessly bleeding out of the cut on his throat and curling up, crying and begging for someone, anyone, to come and rescue him. Reaper sighed. He knew he couldn't give him the final mercy, but he could at least make him comfortable. The invisible God of Death pulled a blanket out of his inventory and kindly wrapped it around the Papyrus. Then he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a quick note. It read:

Hello Papyrus. Welcome to the Save Screen. This is a kind of limbo like space that exists between the Void and the real world. You're safe here. No one can die in the Save Screen. Unfortunately, you will die if you go back into the real world without some kind of a plan about how you're going to survive. And that doesn't mean, "I'm going to survive this". If you don't get it right, you'll die.

There are things you can do to affect the real world. You can open windows and watch, or bring people here who are alive. You can send people dreams, too. Play around with your powers until you figure out what you can and cannot do. Think of it as a great way to spend the time. And you'll have a lot of time to play around with, so don't hold back.

There is a way to get your brother back, but it's hard. It won't be what you expect it to be, I can promise you that. You might even get some additional family members along the way. Who knows? I only know what happened to the last person who was trapped here.

I hope I don't have to see you for a long, long time. Good luck!

-Death

When he was done writing that note Reaper laid it next to the Papyrus where he would find it after he stopped crying. Then Reaper backed up and left the Save Screen to continue his search elsewhere. In his pocket, the picture of his family felt both heavy and unreal, like at any moment it would drop through his pocket and vanish. It didn't, but it felt that way to him. His hand dove into his pocket to stroke the picture. Yep, it was still there. He hoped it never left.

* * *

In the white nothingness of the Anti-void, Geno was laying flat on the "ground". He was on his back, trying to sleep. Trying was the key word. He had no idea how long he had been here, but he hadn't been able to sleep at all in this white place. He didn't really feel tired, either, which scared him. It felt like he'd been awake for days, maybe even weeks, but he still didn't seem to need to sleep. For someone who used to nap at every opportunity, it felt weird.

The other thing Geno was trying to do as he laid flat on his back was ignore the voices. Their number just seemed to grow with each passing hour. Now there were hundreds. He couldn't even begin to count or keep track of them.

So when every single voice in his head went suddenly silent, Geno freaked. He went to jerk upright, but something held him down. He could only watch in horror as his own sliver of a soul was dragged out of his chest. It looked so fragile, as always. It was less than a tenth the size of a normal soul. The edges were jagged and raw, despite repeated attempts to heal him. Just like the slash across his chest, this reminder of what he had lived through was always with him. It was a part of him he couldn't change.

Then he screamed. Intense pain flowed through him, like the hand of some eldritch god was rummaging around in his soul. It hurt. Oh stars, it hurt! If he hadn't been being forced to stay flat Geno knew he would have been doubled over in pain.

It was almost the worst pain he had ever experienced. The only pain that had ever been worse was when he had been actively in labor with Goth. As if sensing that thought, the pain tripled. Now it really was the worst pain he had ever experienced. He was crying, screaming and begging for the pain to stop. But nobody came.


	4. Chapter 4 - Changes

When Reaper returned from the Save Screen it was to a familiar, if terrifying, sight. Life, the flowery Toriel of his world, was sitting calmly on the other side of her stone table. Her arms were crossed over the front of her long, flowing dress. But it was the expression on her face that was scaring him. She looked only mildly annoyed, but that was huge. Life never got annoyed at anything. She had a nearly infinite level of patience. She had even when she was alive, too. So for her to show this much annoyance meant someone was in serious trouble. Reaper had a feeling that it was him.

He floated out of the portal to the Save Screen and sat down at the stone table. It was stone so that neither him nor Life could affect it. It made for a great meeting place. At least, it did when she was in a good mood. Right now it was the last place that he wanted to be.

"Reaper," Life said, her voice filled with ire, "why didn't you tell me that Goth has a crush?"

O...kay, that was definitely _not_ what he thought she'd say. "um, life, he's eight. there's no way he has a crush yet."

Life blinked at him as he blinked at her, both of them clearly surprised about the situation. Then she giggled. "Reaper, monsters can have crushes as young as five. They might not be romantic or sexual crushes, but they're still valid. Goth is definitely old enough to have his first crush. I don't know what kind it is yet, and clearly neither does he, but he has some kind of a crush on his friend, Palette. He talks about him almost constantly and emulates his interests. He has a crush."

Reaper was still at the blinking stage. Then he shook his head. "no. no way. he's been talking about palette like that for over a year! there's no way that's a crush."

"And exactly how long were you in love with Geno before you even confessed to him? I seem to recall it was something like five years. Yes, five years, seven months, and thirteen days. You kept count," Life was smiling and absolutely destroyed him.

Denial was a powerful thing, though, and Reaper had a lot of practice with it. "yeah, no, he doesn't have a crush, and we're leav… where is he, anyway? don't tell me you let ink watch him. i swear that that monster shouldn't be allowed around kids. he's a menace! did you know that he rap-"

"Reaper, I don't want to hear about it. Again. Goth is safe and sound," When that clearly didn't satisfy him, Life elaborated, "Grim came and picked him up for a playdate. Apparently Mercy found a new game for them to play together and he couldn't wait to try it out. There was something about parts of cheese? Or was it ships in an ocean… No, that was the last one. Oh, yes! How could I forget! He said it was named after me!"

Reaper chuckled. Mercy, the little Frisk of his world who flirted with absolutely everything, was always bringing something back from the Surface for his brother, their guardian, to play with. They loved dragging Goth into it, too. They were a little bit older than him, but that didn't stop them. It was good that he had friends to take his mind off of Geno…

Oh, yeah. "life… can you try to find geno again? i know you can't actually find him, but… he wasn't in the save screen. i'm running out of places to look."

Life eyed him pityingly. "Are you sure, Reaper? I don't want you to find out-"

"life, please. i… i need to know he's okay. i… i just need to, okay? i'm not sure how much longer i can keep this up," Reaper said. He wasn't sure what the emotion in his voice was. Generally it was sad, and from there… there was some despair, hope, frustration, exhaustion, and fear. All of that was mixed together in some kind of sadness.

She sighed, eyed him one last time, and looked down. Her hands fiddled with the empty air above the table, but Reaper knew she was looking through all the souls in her care to find the single one she was interested in. He did the same thing when he was working, checking through the different hourglasses (and other insanities of the glassblowers art. The weirder the shape was, the more fucked up the timeline could be and the less likely it was that Reaper and Grim would ever be needed in that world). He knew from Mercy that no one other than his brother and him could see the hourglasses, just like no one but Life could see whatever she thought of souls as.

Finally, Life seemed to locate Geno's soul. She stared at it. Reaper didn't like her expression. She seemed upset, and Life being upset couldn't be good.

"Reaper…" He stiffened. Now she sounded like him, that weird sadness mixture evident in her voice, "I can barely feel him. He's so distant… I don't think any of us gods are going to be able to go where he is. There's some kind of a barrier, and it's magic is much stronger than even mine. And…" she gulped, "That same magic has altered his soul. He's different. I've never seen a soul like his. Someone has affected him on a fundamental level. He's in a huge amount of pain, and… I'm not even sure if he will remember you or Goth. I… Reaper?"

He was sure that he hadn't heard her right. There was no way that Geno was somewhere he couldn't go. He was Death. He could go anywhere; it was proverbial. And there was no way that magic stronger than Life had touched him. That just wasn't possible. He… he… he couldn't be in pain. He just couldn't. And he had to remember them. He was Reaper's soulmate, and Goth's mother. How could he forget them? They were… they…

Reaper wasn't quite sure what opened the floodgates. Why didn't really matter. All that mattered was Geno, and Geno was not okay. Reaper might never see him again, and that… that was suddenly all too real. He tried desperately to cling to his memories. He could see… he couldn't. He couldn't remember what Geno looked like! He scrambled to pull out the photo of them all on that summer day. He stared at it. His hands caressed the curve of his soulmate's chin. Then the first blue tear fell. Another followed. Then another. Then another. Then there weren't individuals, but a flood of them. He… he might never see Geno again. _Goth_ might never see his mother again. Geno might never know that Goth had a crush on Palette. Geno might never get to see his son grow up.

"Reaper. Listen to me." He looked across the table at the god he was sitting with. She fixed her eyes on his sockets and radiated hope. "We'll find him. We're not the only ones looking for him. You said it yourself. Fresh is looking, and this place stinks of the same unnatural magic that feeds him. Ink is looking, and he exists outside the universes themselves. He can't stay where he is forever, and when he does leave, we'll find him. Even if he doesn't remember us, we'll find him. We'll teach him who he is again. No matter what happens to him you will see him again. I promise you that."

Reaper gulped. "you promise?"

Life nodded. "I promise. Now, please go back to crying. You haven't let yourself cry nearly enough. Goth told me he hasn't seen you cry once. That's not good."

Reaper let out a soggy chuckle. "that doesn't mean i'm not crying, life. i'm just not crying in front of him. i don't want him to have to worry about me as well as worrying about geno. he's only eight. he doesn't need that kind of weight on his shoulders."

"If you think that not crying in front of him means he won't worry you're much stupider than I thought. Goth is worried sick about you. You tell him that crying is okay and important and natural, but then he never sees you do it. He asked me to heal your tear-makers, Reaper. He thought there was something wrong with you," Life said pointedly.

"ouch," Reaper winced, "i don't want that. i'll try to cry in front of him, and i'll explain that i didn't want to worry him and i'm all fine."

"See that you do," Life said primly. "Now, cry."

"yes ma'am," Reaper saluted. Then he let himself cry in front of another person for the first time since Geno had gone missing.

* * *

The white space saw both a new inhabitant and an old one. The figure was wearing a black trench coat. The hems were edged with yellow piping, and the cuffs of the sleeves were blue. The bottom of his jacket shaded from black to blue. Under that he wore a ribbed red sweater and a pair of uneven black pants. The hems of the pants had roughly sewn blue cuffs. One was shorter than the other by several inches, but neither was longer than mid shins on him. Black flip flops graced his feet. But that was just his clothes. His bones were the weirdest part. The base of them was solid black, but some of them, namely his leg bones and his proximal and intermediate phalanges, were red. His distal phalanges were yellow, as were his teeth. His skull was black, but it had blue streaks like tears running down from the eye sockets. The sockets themselves were two different sizes, and the eye lights inside them were likewise. Red sockets held yellow and grey eye lights. His nasal aperture was red, too. And scattered around him like flies on carrion were floating glitches and error messages.

Despite all that, it was still Geno sitting there. At least, he still thought of himself as Geno. At least, he would if he could get over the shaking, panicking state he had slipped into. He was huddled up in the center of empty white nothingness, his knees to his chest and his hands trembling in front of him. Voices were screaming at him, their messages a mixed bunch of helpful, kind, and… not. But Geno was too shaken to listen to them.

"They're not going to be able to recognize me," Geno said in a glitched out voice. When he heard it, he sobbed, "I even sound different. My voice is all glitchy, and it's so much lower than it was. What are they going to think when I get out? Are they even going to believe it's me? I've been gone for so long, I-"

**IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO GO BACK. YOU HAVE A JOB TO DO. GO DO IT.**

The voice was overwhelming. It felt like he was trapped in a giant bell that was ringing inside of a giant dome. It hurt his ears, but at the same time it couldn't hurt his ears because a) he had no ears, b) the sound was in his head and, c) it didn't actually hurt. It felt like it should, but it didn't.

"What job?" Geno said lowly. His voice sounded almost like a growl and he hated it.

**KEEPING THE BALANCE. THERE IS CREATION, SO THERE MUST BE DESTRUCTION. YOU MUST DESTROY UNIVERSES.**

Geno recoiled. "What? No! I'm not-"

**YOU WILL. THE MULTIVERSE IS ONLY SO BIG. EITHER YOU WILL DESTROY THEM, OR THEY WILL CRASH INTO EACH OTHER AND DIE A SLOW, AGONIZING DEATH ON THEIR OWN. IT IS INEVITABLE. DO YOU WANT THAT FOR THEM?**

Geno dug his heels in. He had out-stubborned Death. He could out-stubborn an Eldritch voice or two. "I'm not going to destroy universes. Can't they be evacuated? We can-"

**IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS, I WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO INVOLVE YOUR LITTLE ONE AND YOUR MATE.**

Geno froze. "No. No, you can't do that! They're hurt enough as it is, you can't do this to them! Reaper already has a job, and Goth's only eight! He needs Reaper to take care of him, you can't… you can't do this to them. Don't hurt them, please!"

**THEN YOU WILL DESTROY UNIVERSES FOR ME, ERROR.**

"That's… that's not my name," Geno said lamely. He felt so overwhelmed and absolutely rock bottom horrible. Was he really going to kill people and destroy people's homes? But he couldn't bear it if little Goth had to go through this torture. He didn't deserve it. Neither did Reaper. He would do anything to keep them safe. Apparently that included this.

**IT IS NOW. OR DO YOU WANT YOUR MATE TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE MAKING HIS JOB HARDER?**

Geno winced. Reaper hated his job. It was hard enough as it is. He really didn't want to explain to him why he had to make it harder. Reaper would insist on taking on this unbearable pain himself, not because it would make his job easier, but because he wouldn't want Geno to have to bear this alone. Geno didn't want that. He also didn't want to see Goth's face when he found out about this. Goth was a sweetheart. It had hurt enough when they had explained what Reaper and Grim did. It would be even harder to explain this.

"Fine," Geno… no, Error said, "I'll do your job, and I'll take your name. But if you so much as touch my child you will regret it more than anything else you have ever done."

The voice laughed, and Error knew that laugh would haunt his soul forever. It was ruthless, callous, and absolutely insane. **OH, ERROR, YOU ARE SO NAIVE. I AM FATE. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO HURT ME. I HAVE SENT PLAGUES. I HAVE STARTED WARS. I HAVE INSPIRED GENOCIDES, INCLUDING YOURS. I REGRET NOTHING.**

Error shuddered. He knew Fate by the horrors she left behind, and the idea of her rummaging around in his soul was terrifying. He felt hopeless for the first time in a long time. Even his huge supply of determination couldn't fight against the being that had created the multiverse. Ink spoke about her all the time. Apparently he was her favorite. She whispered to him in the night, inspiring him to create an endless supply of universes. Was… was that why he had to destroy? Because Ink was constantly creating? Because Fate was too fond of him to put limits on what he could do? Why? It was so unfair! He'd been happy with his mate and his son. Now he had been torn away from them, isolated, tortured, and changed. It wasn't fair!

Fate, seemingly unaware of his inner monologue, said, **NOW, I WILL ONLY SHOW YOU HOW TO OPEN A PORTAL ONCE. AFTER THIS YOU WILL DO IT ON YOUR OWN. IF YOU DO NOT I WILL PUNISH YOU, AND IF I AM NOT SATISFIED FOR TOO LONG I WILL INVOLVE YOUR FAMILY. NOW, PAY ATTENTION. TO OPEN A PORTAL YOU NEED TO...**


	5. Chapter 5 - Dream and Death

Reaper stepped into Sharktale. He also stepped into absolute chaos. He'd thought he'd opened a portal into the cold-water equivalent of Snowdin, but it looked like he'd missed his mark and ended up in the current to Hotland. That was close enough to walk it, and he didn't have to worry about anyone bumping into him. Everyone in Sharktale swam, including the little diver humans who worked with them. Besides, the only sharks that would be on the floor of this section of ocean were slow enough that he could dodge them. It turns out that binge-watching Shark Week with his son had its uses.

A few hours later Reaper ran into the monster (or, rather, god) that he was looking for. Dream waved at him from the window of his cave complex in the rock forest of Snowdin. Reaper smiled and waved back at him, then grimaced when Dream moved to open the door. It wasn't that he disliked Dream. It was just that Reaper knew that Palette would be there, too, and Reaper hadn't brought Goth. He still wasn't sure how to react to the knowledge that Goth had a crush. So, instead of reacting, he'd decided to ignore it.

The door opening up was what interrupted Reaper's thoughts. Sure enough, the first thing that happened was a little white blur racing out of the house and tackling him at the knees. Reaper was once again glad that he'd convinced the other gods to let Palette become a little immortal. Goth needed someone his own age to play with who wasn't going to die.

"hey, pal-pal. goth has been talking about you," he said, testing the waters to see what Palette's reaction was going to be.

Palette turned an enormous grin up at him. "HE HAS?! I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT HIM, TOO. I'VE BEEN TELLING MOM THAT GOTH SHOWED ME HOW TO MAKE A PORTAL! HE'S SO COOL! I LOVE HIM THIS MUCH!" Palette said, holding his hands as far apart as he could.

Reaper smiled, but inside he was panicking. Love? Palette _loved_ Goth? That much? Reaper _really_ hoped he just meant as a friend. "that's great, palette. i'm sorry i don't have goth with me today. i actually came to talk to your mom. do you think you could find something to do that would be fun to do while dream and i talk?"

Palette nodded. "YEP! I'M WORKING ON A GIFT FOR GOTH! IT'S A SECRET, THOUGH, SO DON'T TELL HIM."

Reaper smiled a little queasily. He definitely wasn't prepared to deal with this. "i promise i won't tell him, pal-pal. now you go get working on that present! goth is really looking forward to seeing you again."

The little skeleton beamed at Reaper, saluted him, and ran back inside. The sound of Dream's laughter, muffled as it was by the water between them, drew Reaper's attention. Dream looked… good. He was smiling, and that smile was more than the shadow Reaper had grown used to on his bad days. Palette did that to him. Goth did, too. Reaper couldn't blame him. They were both absolute delights.

"He's a little gem, isn't he?" Dream said softly, coming over to stand by Reaper. "Even the most horrible situations can have a little light in them, right?"

Reaper winced. He could recognize false cheer when he heard it. Then again, that was Dream's job. He was the God of Positivity. He had to try and make people feel better. Reaper could understand that. He hated his job sometimes, too.

"i can't possibly imagine what good could come of me losing geno, dream. he's…" He trailed to a stop.

"Well, you got to spend some more quality time with your son, right? That has to count as a positive!" Dream said determinedly. Reaper sighed. He should just give in to being cheered up instead of moping, but… after what he had found out from Life about Geno's current condition, that was hard. He just wanted to curl up and cry, but he'd already done so much of that that his voice was sore.

"i guess… that's actually why i'm here. geno, not spending time with goth." It was Dream's turn to wince. Reaper quickly explained, "i have some new information. life found out… she found out… geno's changed. she says something even more powerful than she is messed with him. he probably won't remember us. so, i'm here to warn you about it, and ask if you can maybe check for any new souls? she said his soul has been changed, so maybe you could find him this time."

Dream sighed. Reaper could already feel his aura shifting. He hoped he wouldn't trigger an episode, but he needed to know if Geno was okay. Maybe Life couldn't find him but Dream could? All Reaper really had at this point was hope.

The God of Positivity got that far away look Reaper recognized as him searching. He stood by, ready to act if Dream-

Dream froze, his eye lights going black and his whole body going rigid. Damn. Reaper reached out to touch Dream and wake him from this stupor. Dream could be stuck like this all day if he didn't. It was a consequence of Dream's time trapped in stone. Humans called it dissociation, and it was a scary thing. Dream had once said that it felt like he wasn't attached to his body anymore. His senses were all dulled and so was his mind. If Dream could even manage to respond it seldom made sense. It was part of why Dream was rarely left alone.

Everyone knew what to do when he got like this. The first step was to speak to him. "dream. it's me, reaper. i'm going to touch you, okay?" He said. There was no response, which Reaper knew to expect.

He moved on to the next step, which was to _gently_ touch Dream in a safe place. Reaper picked his arm to touch, not above the fabric of his sleeves, but still on his upper arm. Dream didn't react to the initial touch, but as Reaper began to rub little circles into his arm Dream started to move. First there came a breath. Then a blink. Two. Then Dream's head turned, agonizingly slowly, to face Reaper.

"hey, dream. take your time, but try to come back to yourself, okay?" Reaper said. Pinpricks of light appeared in Dream's dark sockets. They slowly grew into actual orbs. They were still faint, but at least they were there. Reaper counted that as a win. "that's it, dream. good job. do you think you can speak? you can say whatever you want, just say something."

Dream sipped a lungful of air, then let it out. He repeated this twice before he actually spoke. "... I had another episode, didn't I?"

Reaper nodded. Honesty was always best. "yeah, dream, you did. it's okay, though. it didn't last nearly as long as some of your others have. you were out for maybe ten minutes max, and you didn't relapse at all. that's good!"

Dream smiled weakly. "Thanks for your help. I'm sorry I'm not more use for you. What was it that got me started into the haze?"

"i asked you if you could try and find new souls that could be geno. it's okay that you didn't succeed. life already told me we wouldn't be able to find them, but… i'd hoped that she was wrong. i shouldn't have asked you to do that. i'm sorry," Reaper apologized.

Dream's smile grew a little bit in strength. "That's okay, Reaper. I understand. If I hear about or feel any new souls I'll let you know, okay?"

Reaper recognized a dismissal when he heard one, but he had one more thing to talk about. "dream? um, i don't know how to put this, but… goth has a crush on palette. can you tell what kind of crush it is?"

Dream blinked at him and laughed, bright and clear. Reaper smiled. That was good. He hated to leave Dream in a bad frame of mind. "Are you just discovering this now, Reaper? They've been dating for over a year. It's sweet. They're always talking about each other and constantly want to be together. They make each other gifts and share all their discoveries with each other. Palette's soul beat speeds up every time he sees Goth, and Gothy's soul skips a beat when he sees him. I couldn't tell you what kind of relationship they have, though. I just know that it's real."

Great. There went Reaper's little fantasy about the two kids. There was only one thing to do now. He had to find out. "so, how many people knew about this before i did?"

"Quite a lot, I'm afraid," Dream tittered, "although if we knew you didn't know we would have done something about that. There's even a little fanclub for their ship. People give them art supplies and toys to give to each other, that sort of thing. It's called the Poth Fanclub! I can give you the list of people who are in it if you want."

Reaper nodded. He could feel his dark aura swirling around him. He had a thing or two to say to these people who would encourage two little kids in something like this. It was very rude to ship real people, and doubly so for children. Reaper knew what he was going to be doing next. These people needed to have a lesson in manners, and Goth needed to be reminded about taking gifts from strangers.

Dream giggled. "It's all people you know, Reaper. Grim is in it. So are Mercy and me. Classic, Blue, and Red each have their part in it, as do their brothers. I think the only person you'd have doubts about is Ink. We've kept him away from Goth like you wanted, but he is the one giving most of the art supplies to Palette. He is his son, after all."

Reaper shuddered. It wasn't that he didn't like Ink… no, that was a lie. Reaper _hated _Ink. After what he had learned about him lately, why wouldn't he? Ink was a menace. "thanks for keeping him away from goth. i just-"

"I understand, Reaper. I just wish you could forgive him. I have," Dream said pointedly.

"heh. you know me, dream. death is notorious for holding a grudge," Reaper said, chuckling. How exactly that rumor had gotten started was beyond him, but that didn't really matter. It was useful, so he let the rumor hang around.

Dream sighed. "I know. Say hello to Goth for me when you see him!"

"i will. see you later, dream!" Reaper said, waving as he opened a portal back to Reapertale. "i will."

* * *

Error tumbled out of the Anti-Void and fell flat on his face in the snow. It was almost comical how much effort it took him to pry his skull off of the ice. It finally came free with a wet slurp that was completely inappropriate for the action that caused it. He grumbled to himself, "Stupid ice. Stupid portal. Stupid Fate."

Where are we, anyway? Does anyone know what universe we're in? One of the more helpful voices asked.

Error looked around, but he couldn't tell just by looking. There was no dust scattered in this section of the Snowdin forest. No traps littered the ground. The only things he could see from here were the door to the Ruins, the bridge that every Papyrus built with bars too wide, and the branch that the Sans would use to prank the human. Huh. Guess he wouldn't find out until he ran into a monster. Hopefully it would be the Sans. Actually, scratch that. Hopefully there was no one in this world. He _really_ didn't want to kill people. If he had to destroy it would be better to do so without killing anyone.

Oh! You should go knock on the door first! It would be so cute to see you talk to a Toriel again! Another voice, much younger in tone, said.

Error shivered. He really didn't want to, but… he had to start somewhere. He had to do this to protect his family, no matter how much he hated it. He trudged through the thick, unbroken snow to the looming door in the cliffside. Habit, long forgotten in his crazy life, led him to sit against the door with his back to it. He knocked twice loudly and waited for a reply. Under his breath he muttered, "Knock knock."

"Who is there?" An agonizingly familiar voice carried through the door.

Error winced and closed his eye sockets. So there was a Toriel here after all. Great. "Um… glitch?" He said on the fly. It had been a long time since he'd made a knock knock joke like this.

"Glitch who?" Toriel asked.

"_Glitch_ is… I mean, I'm sorry about _glitch_," Error said wretchedly.

"heh. sorry about what, pal?" A third voice joined in. Error's eye sockets flew open.

There, floating in front of him with a genial expression, was a Sans. He looked like a ghost that had never had a rough day in his life. He had a substantial ponch, soft eyes, and a wide grin. Oh, how Error hated that grin. He was about to kill someone who looked happy and welcoming. Damn Fate to hell and back.

Ooh, we're in Ghosttale! Isn't that one of yours, Nnnnn? Error couldn't work out what that one voice had said, but he didn't really need to. He didn't want the voices to have names. That would be awful for his sanity.

"uh, bud? you there?"

The words were almost overrun by the voice of Fate. **Do your job, Destroyer. My patience wears thin.**

Error flinched from the voice. The ghost Sans seemed to be worried. "hey, bud, why don't you come with me? my brother's a healer. i'm sure we can help you with… whatever is wrong with you. i promise we're not going to hurt you, and i hate to make promises. okay?"

"Please don't say that," Error pleaded as he stood up, reaching for his magic to call his blasters, "because I can't say the same thing to you."

The ghost Sans tilted his head. "and what do you mean by that, bud?"

Those were his last words before Error's blaster that he had summoned behind him tore through him with magical fire. Error stared at the dust that floated in the wind. He felt absolutely sick to his stomach. As he heard the ghost Toriel opening the door behind him and prepared to attack, he whispered to the wind, "I'm sorry."


	6. Chapter 6 - AUs time to die

Reaper stared out at the emptiness as if, at any moment, it might hold something again. The emptiness in the fabric of the Multiverse had not always been so. Up until a few hours ago it had held an AU. Reaper had never seen anything like what had happened there before.

He had been hanging out with his brother and his son when a huge wave of deaths had ripped through him. They were sudden and violent, so that meant they were Reaper's business. Besides, Grim had been working so much lately. He deserved a break. Reaper had stood up, said something to his family that he didn't honestly remember, and opened a portal to the scene of the devastation.

At first it had just been an AU full of dust and ghosts. Then, with a speed that would have scared Reaper if he didn't know he couldn't die, the remaining ghosts had been turned into dust. Reaper had taken their souls into his possession and waited for the RESET. It didn't come. Instead he had felt a whole new kind of death sweep over him. He had been thrust into the Void, the fabric between universes in the Multiverse that few could survive in. There were islands of safety in it, like the Gaster house, the Doodle Sphere, and the Save Screen. None of them were nearby.

He clung to the souls of the former ghosts and watched in shock as the whole AU they had come from… disintegrated. He'd seen the husks of AUs that had long since been abandoned, but he had never seen one die. Now he was forced to stare at the soul timer of an entire AU. It looked… large. Empty. Resigned. Forlorn.

Reluctantly, Reaper got out his scythe. The AU's soul didn't appear to be refilling as he would have expected from a RESET. It just hung there, waiting. He didn't disappoint it. He swiftly cut through the center of it, hearing that heartbreaking shatter of glass that he dreaded more than any other sound. The scattered pieces of the soul timer drifted apart into the Void and then dissolved into the little ones and zeros that he could only assume were code. The Void was soon filled with the shattering of soul timers as Reaper worked his way through the lives of the ghosts. There was no point in holding onto them. They had nowhere left to go.

That left Reaper in his current state: floating listlessly in the Void and watching the emptiness that had once held an AU. He was stuck on one feeling that made no sense - this felt good for the Multiverse. Why would the death of an entire AU feel good for the Multiverse? He needed to investigate more.

His reverie was broken by his phone's beep. Reaper quickly pulled it out and opened the text.

Grim: Goth thinks that you're mad at him because of his crush on Palette. Get back here and reassure him. I can't stand the tears!

Reaper grunted and opened a portal back to his living room. Goth was clinging to Grim and bawling his eyes out. Reaper gulped and knelt on the floor, closing the portal to the lack of an AU behind him. "gothy, it's me. can you look at me for a second?"

Goth turned around, tears still falling out of his one good eye.

Reaper smiled sadly. "thank you, goth. now, what makes you think i'm mad at you? i'm really not, you know."

Goth sniffed. "But you said you had to go and didn't give me any time to hug you goodbye!"

"oh. sweetie, i'm not mad at you, i just… there was a big bunch of deaths, okay? a lot of them. so i had to go deal with it. i'm sorry for upsetting you. why did you think it was because of your crush on palette? i'm not upset about that, i'm just a little sad and surprised that i didn't see it before. your first crush is special. can you tell me a bit about it?"

And just like that a smile came back to Goth's face. "Yes! I'd love to tell you about it. It all started when…"

Reaper listened to his son with a combination of shock and happiness. How could his son remember all these things about Palette? It seemed like a lot, especially when Goth went into details about every snack and drink they'd ever had when they got together. Reaper didn't even remember stuff like that!

* * *

Error tried to roll when the portal he'd made spat him out into the dusty snow of a new AU, but he didn't really succeed. The dust joined the remnants of the ghosts in his lungs. He coughed hard to try to clear it out.

Ew, gross! Don't swallow that stuff! That's like cannibalism!

Error ignored the voice. When he finally could breathe without choking, Error sat up and looked around. The landscape was vaguely familiar, but, then again, so had the forest with the ghosts. Error knew that every world would be like that. The basic shape of the Underground seemed to have been copied in every universe he had even been in. It made navigation easy, but… something felt _too_ familiar about this Underground. He looked around, desperate to try to understand what it was. That was when he saw them. He froze.

Red and Edge were towards him, engrossed with talking to each other and playing with their phones. Crap. He couldn't hurt them - they were his brothers! He'd been friends with them for as long as he'd known Reaper. Wasn't this world supposed to be locked, too?

Oh, no, not this world. This is one of the most popular Underfells out there! Why would Fate want you to destroy this world?

Error stiffened his spine, stood up, and threw a quick portal onto the ground. _It hurt! _It felt like the magic was being torn out of him by a handful of lemons sprinkled with salt, but he powered through it. He'd lived on the edge of death for hundreds of thousands of RESETs. He could handle this much pain.

**And what do you think you're doing, Destroyer? **The painful voice of Fate rang like thunder in his head. He ignored it, and her, and dragged his screaming body full of pain through the portal.

As he turned his head, unable to resist looking back as the portal closed, Error saw Red and Edge staring after him, calling out. He tore his eyes away from them and closed the portal. It hurt, doing that. He wanted nothing more than to run over to them and cry. He wanted to know what had been happening with everyone in the picture of his, the one from that summer day, but he especially wanted to know about Goth and Reaper. How were they doing? Had Reaper finally found out about Goth's little crush?

He couldn't do it, though. He could already feel the pain building in the marrow of his bones. He had defied Fate. She had wanted him to destroy that world and he had not. There was bound to be a price. He was just thankful that it didn't involve his family. He would do anything for his family… including enduring any amount of pain.

**Next time it will be them, Destroyer. I do not take disobedience lightly.**


	7. Chapter 7 - Meeting

Reaper hadn't been expecting to hear from Red and Edge together for months. Red had come over to play with Goth a few times since his and his son's ill-fated (Why did that word make him angry? He'd never felt angry about that word before…) encounter with Edge in their Underfell the other day. He'd been so scared for Goth at first. Edge before the Christmas Party was… not the greatest person at interacting with strangers. He was still stuck in Underfell's "kill or be killed" attitude. Red had said he was working on him, though. Maybe it was going better than Reaper had thought? Why else would both Red and Edge be standing in his living room waiting for him once he got back from work?

"s'up, red?" Reaper said genially, preparing to set his weapons on the front hall table. Edge's eye lights were huge as he stared at the scythes. Reaper couldn't resist flourishing them, y'know, just to tease him. His flinch was a wonderful reward.

"uh… hey, reaps," Red said nervously. Red's ground state was to do things nervously. Anxiety does that to a person. "dream said to let you know about anyone new, so, we, uh…"

That got Reaper's interest. He focused on Red and Edge fully. "you saw someone new?"

They both nodded, but Edge was the one who spoke. "YES, OH GOD OF DEATH. MY… APOLOGIES FOR HOW I TREATED YOU AND YOUR SON… WAS HE MY NEPHEW, GOTH, THAT I HAVE HEARD ABOUT?"

Reaper nodded. "yeah, that was goth. he's got a whole slideshow for you when you're ready to meet him, but i want to hear about this new skeleton you saw. they were a skeleton, right?"

Red swallowed and exchanged a look with Edge before saying, "we think."

"you think?" Reaper questioned archly.

Edge took over the narrative from his nervous brother. "YES, WE THINK. THEY WAS THE ODDEST LOOKING SKELETON MY BROTHER SAYS HE'S EVER SEEN, INCLUDING SOMEONE CALLED NIGHTMARE WHO SOUNDS MORE LIKE A GRUMPY OCTOPUS THAN A SKELETON. THIS STRANGER HAD MULTICOLOURED BONES. MOST OF THEM WERE BLACK AS THE DARKNESS IN WATERFALL, BUT THEIR HANDS AND FEET HAD RED AND YELLOW PHALANGES. THE DEPTHS OF THEIR SKULL APPEARED TO BE RED, AND THEIR EYE LIGHTS WERE MISMATCHED. ONE WAS SMALL AND GREY. THE OTHER WAS BLUE WITH A YELLOW RING AROUND IT. NEITHER EYE SOCKET WAS THE SAME SIZE, AND THE GREY EYE LIGHT DID NOT SEEM TO BE MOVING IN TIME WITH THE OTHER."

Red jumped in at that point. "and that wasn't the weirdest thing! they had glitches, but not like geno did. their glitches were random, all over their body, and they looked more like bars of them had just wandered off for a smoke. there were also white error messages like you get with a computer warning!"

Edge coughed. "I BELIEVE THAT THEY WAS INJURED AND IN PAIN. WHEN WE SAW THEM, THEY WAS CRAWLING ON THE GROUND AND WHIMPERING. THEY DRAGGED THEMSELF THROUGH A PORTAL AND LEFT BEFORE WE COULD TALK TO THEM, THOUGH. THEY LOOKED LIKE IT HURT THEM TO TURN AWAY FROM US. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT FROM SOMEONE BEFORE."

Red grimaced. "i have. they look like you do when you have to leave goth with us for a while and you don't know when you can see him again. it was like that, only i swear neither of us have seen this skeleton before, reaps."

Reaper considered for a moment, then said, slowly, "interesting. they might have… no, life said he wouldn't be able to remember anything… but they is new, and they is in pain… can you guys spread the word to the aus? i know you can speak to the council, red, and edge… i'll ask grim to show you how to contact the other papyri. grim's my brother. it's a good skill to have, and they're probably worried sick about you. i'd let 'em know myself, but most people run at the sight of me and grim. can't imagine why."

Red rolled his eye lights ironically at that, but Edge took it literally. "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE THE LITERAL EMBODIMENTS OF DEATH. BOTH OF YOU."

Reaper was about to say something sarcastic, but he was interrupted by the familiar sensation of a small figure running skull-first into his knees. He wobbled but heroically managed to stay upright. Well, standing. He leaned over far enough to see his son hugging his legs. "hey, gothy. s'up?"

"Is that Uncle Edge?" Goth said, vibrating with excitement. "Does he remember me now?"

Reaper looked up at Edge, letting him handle answering. "I AM UNCLE EDGE, BUT I DO NOT REMEMBER YOU. HOWEVER, I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO MAKING NEW MEMORIES WITH YOU, IF THAT IS AN ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVE. CAN WE REACH A BARGAIN?"

Goth considered this seriously for a moment. Then, with all the gravitas he could muster, he said, "No."

"NO?" Edge questioned, surprised.

"No! Because I want to show you my slideshow about how we met! And I'm not sure if that's a new memory or an old one!" Goth proclaimed. He had learned both the style and the stance from Edge.

"HMM… YOU DRIVE A HARD BARGAIN, SON OF DEATH," Edge said, posing dramatically. Then he grinned. "BUT I ACCEPT!"

Red and Reaper exchanged a look. It was a happy one. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

**QUIT FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF AND DO YOUR JOB, DESTROYER! OR DO I NEED TO REMIND YOU OF THE CONSEQUENCES?**

With the agony in his bones still high, Error forced himself to get up. He hurt bad, but he'd hurt worse when he was in the Save Screen. He could still function like this, but he knew none of his family would be able to. Well, maybe Fresh. Pain meant nothing to a parasite like him.

Go easy on him, Fate! You just were hurting him! How do you expect him to work after that?

Yeah! He might have a high pain tolerance, but that doesn't mean that he should have to handle this much! Be nice!

**QUIET, CREATORS. YOUR INPUT IS NOT WELCOME HERE.**

Error staggered under the weight of that voice. Fate was pissed. He really didn't want to find out what she would do if she lost her temper. He raised a hand shakily and opened a portal to a world he knew well, but one that had been abandoned for a long time: FishdomTale. The monsters here had been wiped out by the poisoning of their world's oceans that humans had done carelessly. The humans there had died for the same reason. He only knew it because Reaper had taken him there on a few dates. It was nice, but he knew that no one but Reaper and him would be affected by its destruction.

**HMM. NOT BAD FOR A START, BUT EMPTY WORLDS DON'T TAKE UP NEARLY AS MUCH SPACE AS POPULATED ONES. YOU'LL HAVE TO DESTROY AT LEAST FIVE IN ORDER TO MAKE UP FOR REFUSING TO DESTROY MY CHOICE. OR, OF COURSE, YOU COULD LET ME TAKE YOU TO A WORLD WITH PEOPLE IN IT. THAT WOULD TAKE LESS TIME AND MAGIC ON YOUR PART, AND YOU WOULD BE LESS LIKELY TO BE SEEN.**

Error shook his head, fingering the fading picture in his pocket of the family he would do anything to protect. "I don't trust you not to send me somewhere with people I love."

Yay, Error! Stand up to that bitch! Show her you-

Error flinched as Fate screamed in his head wordlessly. The voice that had insulted her screamed in pain. He never heard from them again. Instead, he hurried through the portal and got to work.

* * *

It was in his 4th universe that Error ran into him. "Ran into" being code, in this case, for "was attacked by". He turned around as acid burned into his clothes and bones to face one individual he had never realized he could hate more than he already did. Ink was dressed differently than he had been the last time Error had seen him. He had on some stupid overalls now with the top flapping loose, a weird cropped jacket over a white shirt, absolutely no shoes or socks whatsoever, and his external memory device and emotional regulation medication- aka his scarf and ink bottles. His eye lights were a green question mark and a red target that quickly shifted into a red heart. Fuck.

"Hey, handsome~ Don't think I've ever seen you before. I'm Ink. You might have heard of me; I'm the Guardian of Creation. Pretty impressive, huh? I'm sure we could come to some kind of agreement where you won't destroy my creations. Why don't you come with me and we can get a bite to eat together?" Wait. Was Ink seriously flirting with him? Ew…

Aww, yes, some Errink! OTP for the win!

Error growled at him and the voice and dragged out two blasters to charge. Then he let his most insane grin spread across his face. "Hi there, Ink. I don't think you've met this me yet, but my name's Error. I doubt we can reach any such agreement for one simple reason. It's my _job, _as Guardian of Destruction, to destroy your creations. Let's just get this fight over with. Now."


	8. Chapter 8 - Meeting

In an unconscious mirroring of his mate, Reaper had to force himself to turn away from Goth, Red, and Edge as he headed through the portal back to Reapertale. He wished he didn't have to do this (it made his soul _ache_), but with someone around destroying universes, he would be busy for a long, long time. Goth's happiness came first, and his son hated to be left alone. Grim was handling the regular stream of death, so Reaper had to handle this. Thus, Goth needed to stay with his relatives, and Fresh was… not an option.

Reaper had only just closed the portal to Underfell when he felt another universe dying. He sighed, grabbed his scythe, and opened a portal to the dying world. When he got there he felt a pang of pain. This world… it was an abandoned world, yes, like so many of the others had been. But abandoned didn't mean without significance, and this one had that.

It was IceScreamTale, a Horrortale variant of IceCreamTale. The inhabitants had killed each other off for food a long time before their human savior could fall. Why wouldn't they? They'd been made of ice cream. Their bodies hadn't melted, either, in this Underground under the Antarctic. That was morbid, but good for Geno. He'd had an _insatiable_ desire for ice cream when he was pregnant with Goth. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that Goth was so sweet if that had been Geno's major craving. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that he was Reaper's son given that he inspired such a morbid fulfilment.

Reaper was so absorbed in looking around and basking in the memories of that time that he forgot why he was there… that is, until he bumped into someone he'd been dying to meet. Literally; he'd physically walked into the back of them, and they were probably going to die now that Death had touched them.

He was absolutely flabbergasted, therefore, when the other turned around and glared at him. The other skeleton opened his mouth to say something… then stared, shocked, at Reaper. He looked just as stunned as the god was.

The other was a black boned creature with multiple wounds that hadn't been tended in a long time. He was bleeding red blood from several contusions and one major crack. His right eye socket was swelled shut with what Reaper recognized as a "black" eye. But beyond that, he looked like he was in so much pain it was crippling. Reaper ached to help him, but-

Wait. Black bones, red eye socket, yellow phalanges, glitchy bars? This had to be the skeleton that Red and Edge had run into a few days ago. What was he doing here? This was a dead world! Not only that, but it was actively dying!

"hey, sans, isn't it? this world isn't really safe for you… heh, not that it looks like you've had _a good time_ there lately, huh? how about this: why don't you come with me to somewhere safe…er? this world's empty and about to die, anyway. you could say i've got a good sense of _dead reckoning_. no point in staying here, huh?" Reaper said.

The black skeleton laughed, his voice skipping and glitching as much as his body did. "Shouldn't one bringer of ends recognize another? Even if it's only with hate? I'm the one destroying this universe. Now, fuck off."

That was all the warning Reaper got before he found himself being shoved through _someone else's portal_ and into the deep forest of Red and Edge's world. He sat, stunned for an entirely new reason, in the snow for a while. Minutes? Hours? He had no idea. He was too busy raging at the audacity that this strange, immortal skeleton (and damn it if he didn't want to know their name) had thrown him through _their_ portal _without his consent_. They had _better_ be new to the Multiverse, because if they weren't they had just about picked the most insulting thing to do to a God that they could. The only being he let get away with that was Geno. The rest knew better than to try.

That was when he felt it. The ripple of death… no, _destruction_ that he had become all too familiar with of late ripped through the fabric of the Multiverse. IceScreamTale was no more. Reaper scowled… then, strangely, felt good. It was as though that death of a universe, that destruction, was good for things. He needed to find out why. He needed to do some research, but first, he needed to reap the universe's soul.

The minute that Error finished destroying the code of IceScreamTale, he dove through a portal back into the Anti-Void and collapsed on the floor, panting. His mind was screaming at him, full of the voices and their confusion. They didn't get why he'd been so mean to Reaper.

His soul was screaming at him, too. It was screaming, and he couldn't understand it. Then the first thoughts were translated into his head. He wish they hadn't done so.

_he doesn't recognize me. HE DOESN'T RECOGNIZE ME!_

**OF COURSE HE DOESN'T. DID YOU THINK I WOULDN'T DO MY JOB WELL?**

He winced and responded with what was his standard response now: absolute subservience. "No, Fate."

**GOOD.**

Then the next thought trickled into his mind. He knew it was his because it sounded like him. Not him, now, but him a long, long time ago, before he'd ever met Reaper or lost his Papyrus.

_he must still think geno is still alive._

That thought hurt, and yet… it wasn't as though it wasn't true, was it? He was still Geno, he just had a new na- Crap, he hadn't told Reaper his new name. Did he need to tell him his new name? He wanted him to know it. He wanted him-

_i can't steal him from myself, especially not when i'm like this._

That one wasn't entirely him, there was definitely some of Fate in there. They didn't seem to want him to like himself much. He didn't, but he was going to fight to keep what little self respect he had, thank you very much. He might not be Geno anymore (yes he was!) but he could still like who he wanted to.

_i should let reaper and goth go and move on._

That one hurt more than all the others, but maybe it was only a matter of time before he thought it. Reaper wouldn't ever want him back like this.

Slowly, with shaking hands, he pulled the photo he cherished out of his pocket. He'd handled it so much. He was constantly pulling it out to look at it, and now his mismatched eye lights had worn it thin. He could barely make out the faces anymore. He needed to move on from this. He closed his only working eye socket and tore its code apart. He felt it disintegrate in his phalanges. They closed on the emptiness of the Anti-Void. His socket snapped open-

E.

**GOOD. I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU WOULD STOP WASTING YOUR TIME ON THAT. NOW, INK IS CREATING SOMETHING BIG AND NEW, SO YOU HAD BETTER GET OUT THERE AND DESTROY A UNIVERSE WITH PEOPLE IN IT THIS TIME.**

"Yes, Fate," Error's glitched voice filled the space. Then, still shaking, he opened a portal to somewhere he thought would be safe and stepped through.


End file.
